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10/06/2014

On creating a murderer

When I first started writing I was all about trying to figure
out a series of events that followed a logical progression. But after I was
nearly done with the first draft of this book I realized I had no idea how to
write a book. I had no idea that it wasn’t really about the sequence of events
at all.

It was mostly about how my characters responded to what I
did to them.

As in how they survived the worst things I could think up to
do to them. Because the backbone of good fiction is pushing your character to
his limit, just to see what he’ll do.

One of the questions I set out to answer in this story is
what happens when you take a couple of normal people, people like me and my
family, and back them into a corner. Then give them a weapon and see what they do.

When I think about my male lead, Tobias, I think of my son,
Alex. What would it take for my boy to take a weapon and use it to murder someone?
Would he be able to do it? How far would an enemy have to push him to get him
to that point? And when he got to that point, would he really be able to do it?
Would he lay down and die or fight back? If i was me, I’d probably just die.